2 sound cards on same rig?

[Brutus75]

First of all, I want to know if this is possible. I already have a X-Fi Fatal1ty Platinum Champion which performs very well in games, but I heard that Asus Xonar DX performs better in music and movies and I decided to give it a try as a secondary sound card (only if possible). As audio devices I have the Logitech Z-2300 (games, movies) and the Sennheiser HD595 headphones (games, music and even movies sometimes).

Selling the X-Fi isn't an option beucase I am playing games at a proffesional level and this card helps me alot finding the enemy.

 

[Robscix]

Yes, you can run multiple soundcard in a PC. Aslong as the drivers do not conflict. The X-fi and Xonar Drivers should be ok in the same system.

 

[mlaine]

I'm currently running a setup with both X-Fi Titanium and Xonar D2 (PCI) in the same computer and it's working just fine. I have X-Fi Titanium S/PDIF output hooked to Xonar's S/PDIF in and run Xonar in S/PDIF loopback mode when I want sound from Titanium. If both of the sound cards are on separate speaker/receiver inputs, you just have to select the correct input on your speakers/receiver and switch the audio output device in Windows audio control panel. In case of using only single output, you need to make sure that the outputting sound card is in correct encoding/passthrough mode.

Oh and if you wish to use Alchemy with X-Fi, you have to make sure that Xonar's Directsound capturing processes (hsmgr & hsmgr64) are terminated before running the game.

 

[Brutus75]

Thanks guys!

Are there any sound differences between the PCI and PCI-E version of the Asus Xonar D2?

 

[mlaine]

Thanks guys!

Are there any sound differences between the PCI and PCI-E version of the Asus Xonar D2?

Xonar D2 and D2X are exactly the same card, except for bus interface. Also, D2X (PCI-E) requires power input while D2 does not.